KUCHING: Encouraged by the overwhelming response she received for the halal mooncake she baked last year in conjunction with the Mid-Autumn Festival, Rimba Melati Othman introduced her version of 3D mooncake this time around.
Last year, the 40-year-old baker sold nearly 1,000 pieces of the traditional Chinese pastry in various shapes and flavours through social media marketing.
She admitted that making mooncake with 3D engraving is not an easy task, but she is passionate about the decoration and learned it from a Vietnamese bakery teacher.
“The initial process of making a 3D mooncake was not much different from the regular mooncake.
“But in terms of colouring, I only use natural dye from fruit extracts and there are more choices of the filling compared to the usual mooncake filling. I also used larger moulds and special equipment to engrave on the mooncake.
“The size and weight of my 3D mooncake is about 250 grammes which is bigger. For this year I choose bird and flower patterns as the decoration on my 3D mooncakes,” she told Bernama when met recently.
Rimba Melati also produces and sells mini mooncakes.
The Mid-Autumn Festival which is also known as the Mooncake Festival falls on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month in the Chinese calendar which is also the middle of autumn, traditionally celebrated by the Chinese around the world more than 2,000 years ago.
Rimba Melati explained that she spent about 30 minutes to complete one piece of 3D mooncake.
“But if the pattern is more complicated, it would take a longer time to complete. Although it is quite time-consuming, I’m happy with the satisfaction I gain in creating the 3D mooncake,” she said.
Apart from the usual lotus seed and red bean fillings, her customers can also have other mooncake fillings such as pandan, cheese, chocolate, green tea, yam and mango.
Based in Bandar Baharu Samariang, halal 3D-mooncake enthusiasts could buy her products through her Facebook account Rimba Melati. – Bernama
